The advanced legends seem to disagree with me, and oxford just does my head in

Got my 1st road win today, in the SRF at watkins. I tried a race earlier and for some reason spun in t1 and was sitting sideways right on that rumble strip. Id barely had time to decide what way to go when i got nailed.

Still, the iRating hit dropped me enough to get into the lower split next race, snagged a win including a pass for the win (none of this wait till they fall off the road BS lol) and came out at the end of the day slightly better in iRating.

Did my 1st races at sebring too. Karma bit me and i got sideswiped by a fella losing it waaaay out wide on the lest turn. Cartwheeled down the straight, into the pits, and got a black flag for a pitlane violation
Second race i was running 5th, got surprised that I started to run out of fuel on the last lap, spent too much time watching the 2 guys closing in on the last turn of the last lap....and spun. god damn.

Well, i am dipping my toe into the murky iracing waters once again thanks to a special offer with the IRL.

Finding it extremely frustrating at the mo building my rating up. Last night for eg, i had time for ONE race and ONE race alone. It was a solstice race at Laguna, started last, was running 2nd with 3 to go then i had a disconnect! It allowed me to rejoin but i was way down, thought i should complete the race for damage limitation. Then on the last lap, a guy ahead spun and stopped in the middle of the track. He pulled forward so i went to go behind him, THEN HE STUCK IT IN REVERSE and clipped me as i passed. It wiped the rear end off my car so that it was undrivable (couldnt turn left AT ALL) yet his car seemed to get off scott-free. So, as a result, my rating was lower than when i started the day. What was the point?

Well, i am dipping my toe into the murky iracing waters once again thanks to a special offer with the IRL.

Finding it extremely frustrating at the mo building my rating up. Last night for eg, i had time for ONE race and ONE race alone. It was a solstice race at Laguna, started last, was running 2nd with 3 to go then i had a disconnect! It allowed me to rejoin but i was way down, thought i should complete the race for damage limitation. Then on the last lap, a guy ahead spun and stopped in the middle of the track. He pulled forward so i went to go behind him, THEN HE STUCK IT IN REVERSE and clipped me as i passed. It wiped the rear end off my car so that it was undrivable (couldnt turn left AT ALL) yet his car seemed to get off scott-free. So, as a result, my rating was lower than when i started the day. What was the point?

Yeah its a bit annoying when that happens. While youre trying to build up your safety rating its worth losing position to stay out of trouble, as in if you see someone spinning infront or in the track just slow RIGHT down and be ready to stop rather than try to predict the unpredicatble and try to get by without reducing much speed (which is the usual sim racing reaction).

My safety rating is up to 3.6 on road and oval now and even a completely incident free race win only improves it by 0.10 so staying out of trouble is the only way to improve it.

Youre not just missing out on the abuse directed at you, its the inter driver abuse going on race long. I find the deep south american accents brilliant to listen to! 'Aaahm' torning intoo turn fo-uuh"

I turned the voice chat on. Man some of the yanks like to chat a lot during the oval races! Certainly havent seen any abuse directed at anyone whatsoever which is good. Its actually pretty cool and does help during the race, especially with that is going on around the ovals with so much chaos sometimes. I think ill get a mic hooked up! 10-4.

Yeah its a bit annoying when that happens. While youre trying to build up your safety rating its worth losing position to stay out of trouble, as in if you see someone spinning infront or in the track just slow RIGHT down and be ready to stop rather than try to predict the unpredicatble and try to get by without reducing much speed (which is the usual sim racing reaction).

Agreed. You just have to suck it up and drive lick a pansy. I have ended up purchasing the Late Model, SK and Skip Barber cars and doing a few races in all of them. The first couple of races were a big hit on SR so i have settled down to just finishes the races and watching everyone else through it off, it is a hell of a lot more entertaining and the SR will go up steadily.

I turned the voice chat on. Man some of the yanks like to chat a lot during the oval races! Certainly havent seen any abuse directed at anyone whatsoever which is good. Its actually pretty cool and does help during the race, especially with that is going on around the ovals with so much chaos sometimes. I think ill get a mic hooked up! 10-4.

Yeah can be a problem. Had two guys chatting the whole race last night:

Yank 1 "Ahm just gurn hang back and lut dese gars fawl off"

Yank 2 "Ah hear ya"

And on it went

Ive binded MUTE - VOL DOWN - VOL UP - SPEAK to the four red buttons below the D pad on the G25s shifter console.

Had my first race at The Milwaukee mile in the Mazda yesterday. Stayed out of trouble all race and ended up finishing 6th. The top 5 cars finished within .35 of the leader. Me..... I ran wide in turn 2 on the last lap and finished miles behind .8 behind the leader!

Was heaps of fun. Im a class C licence and the Mazda is the pick out of all the cars so far. Once you get your head round a good setup, handles very nicely

I dont know about you fellas, but i just try to put the whole SR thing out of my head. Admittedly ive only been playing a few weeks, but its always on a slow but steady climb upwards, and ive almost hit 4.0 for D.

I think youd have to be really bad, deliberatly wreck, or have a hell of an unlucky run for it to drop and stay dropped. i DO take care while racing, and if anything I probably give guys a little too much room, but besides that I just do my thing and it takes care of itself.
Spose it depends on what you race as well, from what ive read, it seems a hell of a lot easier to pick up 4x's on the ovals. Most of my losses are 1 and 2x's on the roads from dropping a random wheel off, or lazy half spins.

Im thinking of grabbing a mic, if for no other reason than to let guys know where youre letting them past etc. The chatter doesnt really worry me, although that win i had at WG...about a lap and a half from the end the guy in 2nd started going on with "youre gonna bin it", "just run it wide, id do it for you" and shit like that which put me off a bit.

Had an unlucky run today in the SRF... Fun car, although I can't seem to drive it unless I ridiculously over-inflate the front tires.. But with that 'tweak' then I could run semi-competitive times (much better than Solstice).. But I caused one shunt (by being TOO careful, bad!) and got smacked twice (not my fault).. Running 13 laps with a bent steering shaft (or whatever, I needed my wheel at 20degree left for the car to go straight) is challenging, though, at least with a not-round shaped wheel.

haha, I did the same thin in the SRF. Was having a really careful start as i was 3rd for my first race and was into 6th coming out of turn 1 and going into the curves up the hill got turned around because i wasnt carrying as much speed. It caused chaos obviously and the car was trashed. Im still waiting for next race!

I've never done an official race in the SRF. Messed around when it came out but it was a pretty difficult car to adjust to. I much preferred the skippy. I've never run the Mazda properly either - it was pretty evil when it first ran - I did one official race with it in its first week and that was that. I did TTs etc to climb the ladder and still ended up in Pro despite barely having run a race above D.

I find the Dallara the easiest of the road cars to drive quickly outside of rookie and D class. I can be frustrating but then so can every other car in the game.

I did a 1.29.669 in TT, but mostly I'm in the mid 30s.. That's with default setup and the front tires inflated to something like 28.5 Can't say I'm competitive, I'm just *way* more so driving these cars than I am driving the Solstice.

What shits me with the SRF (well...all of them i guess but this one seems worse) is that every day i seem to have dramas at a different corner, and one i hadnt even looked like messing up previously. Yesterday it was all T1, and today for some reason the 2nd last corner. god knows what itll be tomorrow. I actually stayed out of SRF races today because it just wasnt going well, although i managed a semi-decent TT.

I havent even started to mess with setups, im still to erratic with my times to know if it was the change, or just me. Besides all that, WG and the SRF have kind of clicked with me. im only like 1.6 sec off the overall fastest lap, and im pretty sure half of that is in the chicane.

Had an awesome race in the skippy at sebring today, think i noticed you in that one Mat. Lead 5 laps, but slowly dropped time, went from 2nd to 4th in the last lap, then things got a bit mad in the last turn with all 4 of us diving in there, dodged the bits, and come 3rd. Best thing was it was an error free race and got me 0.61 SR and up to C class.

God damn the legends races right now are crappy, wrecks everywhere, loads of blinkers, general crazyness. Just come out with 2 top 5's and an anal rapage. time to call it a day.

Nasty, yes i noticed you in that race too. And you were bloody fast! That was a pretty bad race for me, i was flustered at the start because i was trying to get off the phone from the gf before the lights went out, then as the lights went red i jumped forward so i had to cop a 10 sec penalty next time around the pits. Then with about 5 laps to go i dropped a wheel off course and binned it, the car was junk and i DNF'd.

Since then it has been much better with finishes of 2nd, 9th and 3rd.

I also did 4 races at Watkins Glen in the SRF. Finishes of 12th, 8th, 4th and most recently 2nd.

With both the Skippy and SKF the key for me has been to get through the first 2-3 laps and then see how the race plays out, usually if you stay out of trouble you will get a top 5 easily.

Well, last night i did one race in the Solistice at Laguna again. Finished 4th, but more importantly only put a wheel over teh kerb once and that was it. No spins, no contact Et Voila - SR up to 2.88. So, yes, it seems i have to drive like a pansy to get anywhere.

Question: When does the current 'season' end? How long have i got to get my SR up for promotion?

Question: When does the current 'season' end? How long have i got to get my SR up for promotion?

The current Rookie season will end on the 29th. So if you are above your requirements i think you get promoted straight to License D on the 29th. If you get an Sr over 4.00 you get an automatic promotion.

I got my Road SR to over 4.0 and got the instant promotion and had to wait the extra week to get the D License on promotion day for the oval side. You need to watch it though, my Road SR is down to 3.25 due to so many races! if you get too low, do some Q or TT sessions to get it back up.

Is this in a race setting? Are you getting understeer towards the end?

The baseline setup of the Spec Ford is pretty good. The only changes really needed are moving the brake bias to around 56-57 and then the rollbars to adjust for over- or understeer. Only change details like chamber and tyre pressure when you are within 1-2 second of the best qualifying time, i.e. into the 1.27s at Watkins.

I ask because sometimes people crank up the front tire pressures in a car like that to get better front end feeling, since they take so much time and work to get the tires up to the correct pressures. By starting at a higher static pressure the car feels much closer to full potential, but as the run goes on they overinflate and the front end starts to go numb.

It was a common tactic in (real world) Skip Barber cars, especially in qualifying.

I ask because sometimes people crank up the front tire pressures in a car like that to get better front end feeling, since they take so much time and work to get the tires up to the correct pressures. By starting at a higher static pressure the car feels much closer to full potential, but as the run goes on they overinflate and the front end starts to go numb.

Totally agree which is why I always suggest people stay away from these detail settings unless they absolutely know what they are doing.

Focus on the racing line instead, hit those apexes and get on the throttle early.

Is this in a race setting? Are you getting understeer towards the end?

I never really 'felt' or 'understood' the car enough, I could never be a real life race driver for this.. But basically I'd say it makes the car understeer the whole race, which is somewhat the idea because, try as I might, I just couldn't drive it without spinning it. For example, in 50 tries I might have managed to not spin in the lefthander after corkscrew only a very few times, no matter what line or accel/decel/coasting I tried.. My idea was to 1) have fun. and only then 2) dial it down as time go by.

I suppose rollbars are where I should be at, but the quick tip I received was 'try higher front pressure' so there...

(edited to add. Yes, it's getting more understeery by the end of the race, I'm actually surprised the tires don't eat up faster (28 psi instead of 22 seems like a LOT more))

Done 3 races tonight. 1st was a mess, got hit wide by someone, then hit someone as they rejoined at 90deg to the track. Came away with a .15 rise in my SR. Next race, i start last, finish 2nd, put both wheels over teh kerb once. I lept up by .60. Did some qualy which gained me .10 SR. Next race start 2nd and went on to win with a clean sheet. Only a .15 rise!?? I romped the bloody thing!! Currently sat on 3.64. Started Monday night.

The SR jumps around a bit, expecially early on when you havent done many races/TTs/qualys etc. Basically, from what i understand, it keeps track of how many INC's youve had over X amount of corners. Its like a queue, as you put in say 100 corners in a race, it drops the oldest 100 corners off the list.

So if your 'queue' has a bunch of INC's about to drop off the end of the list(say 7), and you do a slightly messy race and pick up 5, as far as your SR list is concerned, youre still 2 better off, and you get an SR increase. Same goes if your last 100 laps were error free, and you have a race with just 1 INC, youre worse off and youll lose some SR. Each lisense level allows a certain amount of errors per corner to keep your 3.50 rating, and each level up allows less.

The actual race result itself doesnt come into it, a last place finish with no INC's is better than a win with 4... at least as far as SR goes. So while youre still new, and a bit erratic, itll move about. Once you start cutting out those 'noob' errors, and youre just left with legitimate feck ups and racing incidents, itll settle. Again, try not to worry. Id almost bet if you go into a race worrying about it, youll bin it and make it worse.

Mat's right aswell. I know its 'anti' racing and all, but i just look to get through the first few corners and stay out of trouble. If i find myself along side someone into t1, sure, ill stay there, but i wont try for an outbrake etc or if someone is having a lunge at me ill let them go. Youll probably find atleast 2 people fling themselves off the road on lap 1 or 2 and if youre ready to dodge the bits, youll gain what you lose being cautious at the start. Id bet 50% of my major SR hits come from race starts, and 35% are from my noobness. The remaing 15% should be enough to worry your SR too much.

Exactly what Nasty said - just don't worry about SR. If you're a safe enough driver and don't be too aggressive, it'll work itself up. And as long as it's above 3.0 when it comes time for promotion, then you're doing ok. My SR yoyos in the 2.x range - I'd like to see it higher but that's good enough for me for now.

And remember, when you go over a whole number (or go back under), you'll get an extra 0.4 'bonus' SR just to give you some leeway so you're not jumping in and out of eligibility for a series (get +0.01 when you're at 2.99 and you'll actually end up at 3.40. Lose 0.01 when you're at 3.00 and you'll end up at 2.60).

Mat's right aswell. I know its 'anti' racing and all, but i just look to get through the first few corners and stay out of trouble. If i find myself along side someone into t1, sure, ill stay there, but i wont try for an outbrake etc or if someone is having a lunge at me ill let them go. Youll probably find atleast 2 people fling themselves off the road on lap 1 or 2 and if youre ready to dodge the bits, youll gain what you lose being cautious at the start. Id bet 50% of my major SR hits come from race starts, and 35% are from my noobness. The remaing 15% should be enough to worry your SR too much.

Its a good approach to be lenient when attacking too. I managed to assume the lead and my first win at Laguna Seca other night in Solstice by never even getting alongside. Running 2nd I showed my car to the inside of the leader in the left hander after corkscrew and the leader kept his foot in as I backed off, he ran 1 wheel wide and span across my nose and I cruised to the chequer. Had I hot headed it alongside Idve A: Gone off with him or B: Got collected by him as he spun back across the track.

Just got my race win pdf certificate through from Tim Wheatley. One for the trophy room!

Also, if you doing a lot of racing, i suggest qualifying first. You can be guaranteed that there will be some kind of incident in the first 1 or 2 laps. The higher I qualify the more trouble i stay out of. And with the majority of the field not qualifying you will usually be in the top 6 somewhere.

Its funny how some things start to click. I hadnt been below 2.33.5 in the Skippy at Sebring. I had another go and im straight away in the 32's, and i popped in a 31.8!

Im having the opposite problem at Lanier in the rookie legends, im way off the pace compared to all tracks ive tried so far. Whats the secret here? Im two tenths off pole, at SoBo I was on the pace in the first session.

I learned Road Atlanta lately and man what a crazy track that is. It goes up and down alot with blind entrys and blind exits, its a very dangerous track, but what a blast! Really like the detail of the track and the nuances of the tarmac, it can be really bumpy at some places, I found myself driving different lines to avoid some bumps. I have gained alot of respect for people who dare to race on this track for real. A rollercoaster ride.

Theres something wierd about Lanier I cant put my finger on. It just feels like I cant RACE there. Im not a million miles off the pace, but every race seems to be just ticking off laps, it all feels nice and comfortable and not as on edge as sobo, but.... I dunno.

I always qualify for a race, but ive noticed lately its kinda causing me some dramas. All my road races today, ive been stuck in the 1st or 2nd split, and im really noticing the difference. But what i dont like is, noone else is qualifying. Im finding myself on like 4th on the grid with a truck load of guys behind me who are quite a bit quicker and im doing all I can to just not get run over early on.
It also kinda sucks when you rock in as division 6, and everyone else is 1 or 2, and 4 seconds faster around a place like sebring. If im lucky there might be one guy around my speed, but otherwise its a glorified time trial for me. Every race today ive had this happen...ending up in like 2200 and 2300 SOF's, and i keep thinking 'well, the irating hit for comming 2nd or 3rd last wont be bad, might get down into a more racey split', and every race a bunch of guys take eachother out, and i end up with irating INCREASES.

Still, i guess its doing something, I set my PB fastest laps in everything today.

I had no idea you got certificates for your first oval and road wins....im half thinking of framing them

Those shots do show an awesome level of track detail, although some one needs to rake up those iLeaves at the pit exit.

And the Race-Win certificates, are almost enough to make me join, on thier own.

You think the tracks 'look' realistic? Thats got nothing on how the tracks actually feel. It does feel like every bump and crack and imperfection of tarmac is also modeled. Which is the most impressive parts of all i think.

Im having the opposite problem at Lanier in the rookie legends, im way off the pace compared to all tracks ive tried so far. Whats the secret here? Im two tenths off pole, at SoBo I was on the pace in the first session.

I cant really help you with the rookie legends car as i only spent a week and 2 races in it before moving on. Are you running the whole lap in 3rd gear? Also the key with that car is keeping momentum up, try and increase rotation of the car through the turns without scrubbing speed. And never underestimate the power of slow in fast out.

You think the tracks 'look' realistic? Thats got nothing on how the tracks actually feel. It does feel like every bump and crack and imperfection of tarmac is also modeled. Which is the most impressive parts of all i think.

Def agree with this.

Try driving the unlimited Legends car at Lime Rock. Its about 1-2 faster than the solstice but it feels like you just successfully wrestled a bear to the ground! The bumps affect the short wheelbased/track car massively.

The modeling/physics for accidents is....a bit over the top. Not the damage etc, but the accidents themselves. I got stuck in some drama comming out of t1 at sebring, a guy spun across the road, clipped me, and i went over. Fair enough, thatd probably happen. But 13 barrel rolls and 2 forward summersaults? It looked great though, esp the incar from the guy behind me, who was trying to avoid the bits while i was barrell rolling in the air above his head.

Still came 8th out of 16, and what shits me is there was a 90 sec tow, a 15 sec tyre change, and 10 sec spent flipping about, and i was only 1:33 behind the winner.

BTW, those comparison pics between the game and IRL.... have a squizz at this.

Well said. The car really is a handful on a road course, but alot of fun

Yeah it is well said! I havent tried the advanced legends car on a road course yet but im keen to run it. I was think a road course series with these cars would be heaps of fun! We had the aussie legends cars running here for the last few yeears, very entertaining stuff.

The modeling/physics for accidents is....a bit over the top. Not the damage etc, but the accidents themselves. I got stuck in some drama comming out of t1 at sebring, a guy spun across the road, clipped me, and i went over. Fair enough, thatd probably happen. But 13 barrel rolls and 2 forward summersaults? It looked great though, esp the incar from the guy behind me, who was trying to avoid the bits while i was barrell rolling in the air above his head.

Still came 8th out of 16, and what shits me is there was a 90 sec tow, a 15 sec tyre change, and 10 sec spent flipping about, and i was only 1:33 behind the winner.

Yeah the crash physics canbe a bit full on but is tolerable i think. I was thinking that with them always producing software updates that this could be fixed in future?

It was a common tactic in (real world) Skip Barber cars, especially in qualifying.

Incidentally, it seems to be just what they've done in iRacing. Just bought myself the Skip Barber car and after a dozen of laps with the baseline setup I find my temps are real hot in the middle band compared to the sides. Dunno why they'd wimp out the baseline skippy yet pimp out the spec racer (rookie class) with lots of oversteer.. lol

Incidentally, it seems to be just what they've done in iRacing. Just bought myself the Skip Barber car and after a dozen of laps with the baseline setup I find my temps are real hot in the middle band compared to the sides. Dunno why they'd wimp out the baseline skippy yet pimp out the spec racer (rookie class) with lots of oversteer.. lol

Probably to mirror how a Skip Barber car is setup by default. Afterall they are racing school cars so are setup in a way to teach you certain aspects of driving rather than just being the out and out fastest(ie most difficult) setup.

Had the first race for Solstice in a few months last night. Got a new PC chair that's like a car seat since the last time I raced, so it's a bit more comfortable then I'm used to so it took some adjusting. I'm one of those people that needs everything exactly right. The distance from the pedals to the chair, the angle of your legs. If things are uncomfortable it's easy to tense up. Where as if it's comfortbale, you can drive for hours on end without any problems. The most hours I've driven at once is 8. I was practicing with someone for an Indycar league for rfactor on Long Beach street track and making setups and practicing overtaking, and also ovals. Was fun but ended up not joining the league.

Did some practice laps and things felt strange. Iracing is really one of those things that needs regular practice (duh). In the first race at Laguna, didn't get to qualify but had a nice pass into the corkscrew and another into the final corner. Best time was a 48.8 but was woefully inconsistant. Was headed for 3rd I think but lost concentration into the final corner of the race and ran wide onto the gravel and lost a place or two. Arghhhhh. The second race wasn't much better. It's the same problem I've had in other racing. When your on form and get a clean start, you can drive a perfect race pushing hard for every lap. But if you make a mistake and someone gets past, my decision making and "coolness under pressure" becomes awful. I ran wide again, another one slipped past. I overtook him back but then he dived back on the inside later in the lap. Then I tried to criss cross him getting a better exit but hit his rear. No damage but contact -4 SR. That bad exit gave more cars a run on me, and when I went to dive to the inside he was blocking and we both spun. This is the worst race I've had in iracing and copped a serious hit in SR points. STAY AWAY FROM ME if you want good SR.

Just need more practice, but the SR thing is always a struggle. I can drive attacking the track but I get -1's. Or I can drove slow but will run wide onto gravel from losing concentration. I'm Class D 3.3 at the moment but want to get up to 4 to try out the Mazda's. Not easy! I know you can choose to drive safe but it's a race afterall. Maybe it's different for me, because I enjoy the Soltice so I'm not just trying to get the SR to get away from them. And it's fun to attack. The balance becomes from more practice and experience. No excuses, need to get onto the track more often. It's fun with sims like this, whenever it starts feeling easy take a few months off and it becomes very challenging again. This is just the Solstice, the torquier cars will be even harder I'm guessing. But they also have more downforce and less weight. It's very strict but you really do have to earn your results in iRacing.

HRT, I get what you mean, oh yes I do... Still, if there's one tip I can give, it's drive the cars like you drive a league race rather than thinking about SR, and the SRs *will* turn out okay in the end. -- I started racing legends and get wrecked a lot but for now I find the challenge fun and interesting. And the SR is slowly, but steadily, going up. Joy all around.